Evidence 101

EVIDENCE 101...Wherever you go, there you are...

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Coffee With An Author

Traffic was really conjested with several cars slowing to a crawl as the snow fell on the roadway. I felt sweat beading up on my forehead. Fretting about being tardy, I thought to myself, "How rude would that be?" It was a great honor just to have the coffee invite accepted by such a great author and award winning screenwriter. Perhaps the cafe had a roaring fire inside. I had requested my favorite table which was located close to the warm amber glow when it was lit. Mr. Whitehill would surely scold me if I was late.

*record scratch*

Not really. I really just had coffee by myself.

However, Robert Blake Whitehill, author of several great books including the Blackshaw series, graciously agreed to answer my questions which I think are quite exciting to share. I just finished Geronimo Hotshot. It's a great read and my favorite of the series thus far.

Without further ado-here is what every Blackshaw fan wants to know. Enjoy!

What inspired you for the story line in Geronimo Hotshot?

Devoted
“Blackshaw Series” readers are always my most important inspiration. They
demand a new Blackshaw mission every year now, and I would hate to disappoint
them. In the Geronimo Hotshot mission, I wanted to ramp up the level of conflict
far above anything Blackshaw’s handled before, creating a central nexus where
several very different factions are smashing together to create an explosive
critical mass. Think of Tolkien’s chapters on “The Battle of the Five Armies” in
The Hobbit. I wanted that feel of an
embattled landscape and disparate cultures are ripped apart, but in our
dimension, in our country, and not in Middle Earth.

Any coincidence your books are inclusive of current events and hot topics in
law enforcement?

There
is no coincidence that Blackshaw tilts at windmills built from the timbers of
current events. Blackshaw is not some hyper-violent berserker, killing
willy-nilly. He responds and reacts to things that are happening directly in
front of him. Whether he is protecting his home from bloodthirsty, corrupt
rogue operatives, like in Deadrise,
or sabotaging a coup in South America, as in Nitro Express, or settling the hash of sadistic human traffickers
running an on-line snuff site, like in Tap
Rack Bang, or hunting down murderous White Supremacists, as in Geronimo Hotshot, there is always an
aspect of today’s most poignant, grievous ills underpinning the story. These
true-to-life tragedies might not always be found on the front page, above the
fold, but they do haunt the inner pages of our times. Blackshaw stories are
built around bad people causing big problems. Maybe as an author, I start out
each mission acting as a clipping service for today’s troubles.

like how you include the real thought processes in police officers struggling
with good and evil-i.e. the darkness issues. Tell me more about that and how
you bring it into Blackshaw's character.

Thank
you so much Momma Fargo! Snipers are
keen observers. Mythic accuracy at shooting gets all the attention, but SEALs
are often deployed for reconnaissance to gather intelligence before they ever put
the crosshairs on a target. They survey
the area, and understand the battle space as much as possible, using a
detective’s intellect to interpret input from all their five senses. So, let’s
say I know a chapter conclusion that Blackshaw needs to reach for the plot to
move forward. I begin with that, and then work backwards, thinking about all
the clues that I can put into Blackshaw’s sphere for him to see that will lead
him where I need him to arrive next. He has a high emotional IQ to complement
his strategic awareness and tactical skills. Like the real life Sergeant York,
and the late hero American Sniper, Chris Kyle, Blackshaw was raised as a rural
hunter. A character with inspirational smarts and skills like this is
unstoppable. He can read signs, spoor, clues, and human behavior to get to the
next conclusion, just like a detective.

When you have to injure or kill off a character, what goes on in your mind
while you are writing those story lines? Do you get emotionally attached to
your characters? What decides their fate? (I know you do, but as the story
develops...what's going on in the writer's mind?) Or do you think more so how
the reader is going to be affected and how it develops plot twists?

Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, at one point, killed off both Sherlock Holmes and his arch
enemy, Professor Moriarty. He tossed them off a cliff into a massive waterfall!
His audience was so pissed-off that after suffering a few years of reader
invective, Conan Doyle resurrected his most famous character to unravel more
cases. With that in mind, let me say that I injure and kill characters with
great deliberation. One time, there was a character who was well and truly
killed in an early draft of a story (I won’t say who, or when so please don’t
ask.) When I showed the manuscript to trusted readers, I caught an incredible
volume of flack about it. How could I do such a thing to such a beloved
character? The anger, even the angry tears, they were quite persuasive, I’ll
put it that way. It used to be that every character’s boo-boo, and every
fatality used to serve my initial concept of a given story. Now, from the very
first draft, I know to size up every character’s emotional value, and the
impact of that character’s termination on a very real, profoundly invested
readership. I respect my readers. I
serve them, and their rightful wish for emotional satisfaction, but I don’t
baby anyone.

The
thing is, I’m not Blackshaw’s pal, even though he is the focus of the series. I
am really best buddies with every last one of his enemies. I conspire with them
to make Blackshaw’s life a living hell. The more awful, grotesque, sadistic,
calculating, and irrational Blackshaw’s opponents, the higher Blackshaw has to
rise to defeat them. We might like a hero’s ways, but deep down, we revere him
because of the unmitigated monstrosity of the enemies he destroys. We want that guy on our side. We want to be him.

What is next for Blackshaw?

In
Blackshaw’s next mission, entitled Dog
and Bitch, he is forced to confront an earth-shattering relic from his time
as a SEAL. The honor of his former team is at stake. Shadowy, brutal government forces have
coopted a crucial mission to the point that, if the devastating secret were
revealed to the public, it could phase-shift world politics into a wholesale
holocaust. The problem is that these days, Blackshaw hates secrets…

What do you want your readers and Blackshaw fans to gain the most from your
series?

The
most important thing I want Blackshaw fans to take away from each book is that
the 56 thousand irretrievable heartbeats a reader invests in devouring the work
has been one hell of a terrific ride, and could not have been better spent in
any other way. I hope the takeaway from the Blackshaw Series as a whole is that
Blackshaw is a good, relatable, ordinary man battling his way through
extraordinary times while still managing to march to his own drumbeat. If one
reader can be inspired by Blackshaw’s actions to do the unusual thing,
especially if it’s the right thing, then crafting the characters and events of all
these adventures will not have been in vain.

When and where do you write? Do you have to have a special location?
Inspiration? (for example)

I
am very fortunate in that I can write anywhere, most anytime. That said, these
days, what with writing the Blackshaw movie scripts, I cannot afford even the
minimal travel time to a local café, or to a rented office to do my writing, no
matter how refreshing a change of venue might be. It cuts into the time I need
to spend making every line of the story sing or sock you in the gut. Nowadays, I
wake up, maybe I exercise, but then I throw myself in front of the computer at
home and dive into the manuscript. Working at home keeps it real. I am right
there in the house with the mortgage my writing helps pay off. I can see my
son, for whose education I have to save. There is no faking the urgency of
sustaining one’s family. So, it isn’t a flowery, uplifting kind of inspiration
with Celtic music playing softly in the background. As a writer, I either deal
with a gun to the head, or face the wolf at the door.

Do your characters ever take on different directions than your original
creative ideas as you progress through a book as you write?

My
characters are so ornery! I plot, I
plan, I think I know exactly where a day’s writing will lead, and then these imaginary
beings I’ve created veer off in some unforeseen direction, or say the most
outrageous things! It happens more than
once every day. These characters are ungovernable, and unpredictable. It keeps
things fresh for me as their employee, that’s for certain.

What is the most annoying thing about the writing process? Most satisfactory?

The
most satisfactory moment of the writing process is when something so exciting,
so explosive hits the page, that I have to get up and tell my wife. Then she
asks what the heck I’m talking about, specifically. This brings me to the most
annoying part of the writing process. I can’t tell her what I just wrote. We
have reluctantly agreed that I will save it all for the moment I can hand her
the finished draft. This really bugs us both, this temporary limbo of secrecy,
but we both agree it’s worth the wait.

Anything you would like to add?

I want to thank you, Momma Fargo,
for taking the time to craft delightful, provocative questions that have been so
much fun for me to answer. I also want to thank the Blackshaw fans, because
they always push me to do better. The feature film adaptations are in the works
for them. As a more immediate thank-you,
e-book readers who are new to the series can take the plunge with the Ben Blackshaw Box Set: The Alpha Missions,
which includes the first three books for the price of one! It’s not only a great value, but it gets a
reader primed and ready for the fourth book, Geronimo Hotshot, which is also available now. This is a good place
to say I truly welcome emails from readers anytime.

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I decided to blog about life on the streets as a means to let people enjoy my encounters through a looking glass. Although my profession is often plagued with sorrow and tragedy, it is also full of laughter and pure entertainment.

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Cruisin' Music

Training the new officers is challenging and fun at the same time. I am training officers that are young enough to be my children...YIKES! They laugh at my humor and the kind of music I play in the car. I like several different kinds of music and it depends on my mood what I listen to. However, when I'm in my patrol car I only listen to rap, hip hop, and R & B. Imagine the 20 something officer's reaction when I throw a little 50 Cent or Bone Thugs into the CD player. LOL. They're like, "You listen to this? You like this? That is so cool!" Yep, I'm cool. When I take someone to jail I ask them what kind of music they like and play what they want to hear. If they are a butthead, I play talk radio.

What Music Is Playing In My Cruiser Now

Ray J...All I Feel

50 Cent...All

Snoop Dogg...Malice in Wonderland

Bone Thugs...All

Pretty Ricky...All

Flo Rida...R.O.O.T.S.

Jay Z

Eminem...All

Top 30 pop songs

Oh yeah...Jailhouse Rock..by the GREAT Elvis!

My Views on Women Cops

We are our own worst enemy...women. Yep, we are less accepting, supporting, and encouraging to our women coworkers than the men. Probably because as a woman, you have to prove yourself worthy of the job...to us first. Woman cops don't like sissy cops...male or female. We don't like what we call holster sniffers either...(woman who want to date or marry a uniform). However, once the women cops think a female is worthy, then the support system is there in full swing. Pretty harsh. It's the truth. There are some of us that will start out being supportive, until something proves to us that you are an idiot. And that doesn't mean we are not ladies. Sometimes, ladies, all we have is our brains...don't be a stupid bimbo.

Why Our Moral Society Has Declined

Anyone who works in law enforcement knows that the reason society has become dysfunctional is because of the deterioration of the family structure. Few sit down to a family meal anymore or communicate with their children. People are too busy or too self involved. This is evident from the poverty stricken to the very rich. It takes a community to raise a child, but family comes first.

Why I Like Madea and Tyler Perry

Madea is one of my heroes because everything she (Tyler Perry) does makes me laugh. Tyler Perry movies have a meaning to each one that reminds us all what is good. He should be commended for his work. And...I love Madea...Hell to the Yeah!

Why Cops Like the Pretty Lights

I am sure many people wonder why cops like to drive fast, eat donuts, and turn on their lights. Shiny things...just kidding. Donuts are just good, nothing to discuss there. The lights are pretty (it's the only spotlight we will get) and driving fast is fun. Pretty simple.

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Momma Fargo's Short Lessons of Encouragement

Life is wonderful...all you have to do is show up.Your kids only have one childhood.

Life is always measured backwards, but only lived forward.

Don't talk about it, be about it.

Live byTHE GOLDEN RULE. Treat those as you would want to be treated.

Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.

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